Sliding door construction for refrigerated cabinets



A. J. LORENZ March 23, 1954 OR CONSTRUCTION FOR REFRIGERTED CABINETS SLIDING DO 2 sheets-sheet 1 Fild Dec. 29, 1951 il I! [I INVENTOR.,

March 23, 1954 A. J. LORENZ SLIDING DO OR CONSTRUCTION FOR REFRIGERATED CABINE 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed Dec. 29, 1951 INVENTOR. /zrf f [arzuz BY AYf/ Patented Mar. 23, 1954 SLIDING DOOR CONSTRUCTION FORv REFRIGERATED CABINETS Albert J. Lorenz, Clifton, N. J.,

ican Hard Rubber Co a. corporation of New 11111313157, York assigner to Amer- New York, N. Y.,

Application December 29, 19651, Serial No. y264,155

6 Claims.

The present invention relates to a sliding door construction for a refrigerated cabinet, and more particularly to a sliding door construction for cabinets or display cases, wherein provision is. made for sealing the cabinet when the door or doors are in their closed position or positions, and wherein further provision is made for preventing bodily removal of each door used, except when that door is within a predetermined limited range in its path of sliding movement.

As such, the present invention may be considered as an improvement on the subject .matter disclosed and claimed in the patent to Bohn et al., No. 2,047,937, issued July 21, 1936. In the Bohn et al. patent, a quite complicated arrangement was provided for a door for a display case, such as might be used in a store where meat or other material requiring refrigeration is sold. The present invention is also adaptable and useful for that purpose. The present invention, however, provides a somewhat simpler and relatively cheaper construction, while preservingr all the advantages of the structure disclosed in the Bohn et al. patent aforesaid. In addition to this, the present invention provides for the use of gasket means, effecting a superior type of seal at the closed position of the one or more doors used, than was available with a construction as disclosed in the Bohn et al. patent.

Summarizing the present invention, there is provided a door construction for a refrigerated cabinet embodying special provisions, including one or more gaskets coupled with wedging means by which the door or doors may be moved in a direction generally perpendicular to the plane thereof and to the plane of movement thereof, so as to compress the one or more gaskets at the closed position of each door so that at such position of each door, the opening to the cabinet, which is closed by the one or more doors provided, may be eifectively sealed against ingress of room air into the cabinet and/ or egress of cold air therefrom.

The movement of each door perpendicular to its plane at its closed position is effected by wedging means, some of which are xed while others are mounted on each door respectively. The cooperative action of these wedging means, as the door approaches and reaches its closed position, is effective to move the door in a direction perpendicular to its plane and to the plane of its sliding movement and thereby to compress one or more resilient gaskets associated therewith.

'One of these wedging means, however, lin accordance with the present invention, has a dual function, in that it not only acts as a wedging means aforesaid, but also acts as a locking' lug, and as such, cooperates with a ledge as to which it is relatively movable incident to the sliding movement of the respectively associated door. The arrangement is such that there is a recess in the ledge which will be opposite the locking lug when the door is in a predetermined limited range of its movement. When in this position and within this range, the locking lug is opposite the recess, so that the door may be lifted bodily until the lower portion thereof is clear'of the guide means or track means with which the door engages the lower sill; the lower portion of the door may then be swung outwardly until it is clear of the lower sill; following which, by lowering the door until it is clear of the upper sill, it may be bodily removed. Replacement of the door in its normal operative position is effected by a reverse series of operations. Thus, in accordance with the present invention, there is a double function for one of the wedge means aforesaid. The construction as a whole is relatively simple, easy to keep clean, and relatively inexpensive to manufacture, and thus provides a practical commercial device. Objects of the present invention include provision of a structure as above outlined having the various commercial advantages generally referred to hereinabove. Other and more detailed from the following detailed specification and will be pointed out in the appended claims, all when considered in connection with the accompanying drawings, in which:

Figure l is a face view, substantially in elevation, but with parts in vertical section substantially on the broken line l-l of Fig. 4, of apparatus embodying the present invention;

Fig. 2 is a view substantially in horizontal section on the line 22 of Fig. 1; j

Fig. 3 is a view on an enlarged scale and in horizontal section, taken on the line 3 3 of Fig. l, illustrating the sealing action ofthedoors in their closed position;

Fig. 4 is a view substantially in vertical section on the line 4-4 of Fig. 1,'

Fig. 5 is a view similar to Fig. 4, but showing locking lug whenthe that the recess aforesaid is opposite the locking lug, so that the door may :be lifted for bodily removal, there being shown in dotted lines in this figure'an intermediate position of the door as' it is being removed;

Fig. 6 is a fragmentary view, similar to the upper portion of Fig. and similarly in vertical section, showing the door in the process of being removed from the associated cabinet; and

Fig. 7 is a fragmentary isometric view illustrating the action of the wedging means in compressing one of the sealing gaskets,v at the closed position=of adoor.

The door construction for the refrigerated case of the present invention may be applied as aforesaid either to a display case, such as might be used in a meat market, or to a cabinet arranged closer to the floor where the doors are vertical` In general, the present embodiment of: the invention as shown in the drawings will be described as if Fig. 1 were an elevation and as if the doors shown vertical in Figs, 4 and. 5 were in fact vertical. It will be understood, however, that the same principles could be applied if theY doors were in a position such as for a refrigerated cabi-net for frozen foods having a topopening for horizontally' disposed sliding doors'.

lurtlfiermore,l while the embodiment of the inv'entionx illustrated: in the accompanying drawings shows a pair of cooperating doors for closing a single opening, the` invention in its broader aspects` may be applied to one or more doors, sothat av single' door and its associated means may embody all the features of the present invention. These novel features may be duplicated respectively inany number of doors.

Again, while it isl common, as shown in the Bohrr et al. patent aforesaid, to provide doors for. display cases having transparent panels or sections, thepresent' invention is illustrated as applied to a solid or opaque door construction. A transparent panel type door could be used in lieu ofr the opaque doors shownV in the accompanying drawings without cha-nge insofar as the present invention is concerned.

The particular construction of the refrigerated cabinet and/or of the doors per se is further no part of the present invention. This cabinet, the sills and other means making up the casing aromid the opening thereto' and the doors themselves may be made of any one or moreY suitable materials. For example, parts or all the doors shown.- in the accompanying drawings may be made up of hard rubber, various synthetic plastic materials, partly or wholly of wood, metal, or any other materials of construction which may be desired and which are adapted to the use for which this device is intended. In addition to this, while thet doors, as shown in Figs. 4 and 5 for instance, arev illustrated as empty hollow bodies, the interiors of these hollow bodies may comprise a dead air space or may be partly or wholly filled with any suitable heat insulating material, such as cork, ber glass, etc. Alternatively, the doors may be made als a panel of a single thickness and,y suitable heat insulating material or panels thereof secured thereto in any desired manner. All these variants do not affect the application of the present' invention as hereinafter particuarly described, to a door construction to which the present invention generally pertains.

Turning now to the accompanying drawings there is illustrated generally at l a portion oi a refrigerated cabinet provided with an opening arranged to be closed, in the form of the invention illustrated, by a pair of mating or cooperating. sliding doors, each of which is similar to the other, so that for the most part, only one need be described. The opening in the casing is bounded 4 by an upper sill I i, a lower sill side members I3 and i4.

The upper and lower sills H and l2 are provided with guide tracks for each door, so that in the form shown, which is provided with doors l5 and i6, there will be an upper track Il and a lower track i8 for the door' l5 and an upper track i9 and a lower track 210 for the door I6. In the form shown, each of these tracks is conl2, and stationary structed as a grooved guideway, comprising a single groove. As will be noted, the lower tracks or grooved guideways I8 and '20 are substantially shallower than are the grooved guideways Il and I'S- respectively inthe upper sill, the purpose of which will: appear later.

While the' lower' tracks are particularly described as grooved guideways herein, it is specifically contemplated that these lower tracks could be formed. in the saine manner as the lower tracks or the Bohn et al. patent aforesaid, wherein the ribs are provided. onA the lower sill cooperating with the suitable grooves; in the lower parts. of the doors respectively and suitable. anti-friction devices arev provided in conjunction therewith. The present invention is. not. concerned with the particular and exact construction of the lower tracks for the doors,I except. in its more detailed phases as hereinafter set forth. The preferred construction, however, is that particularly shown and described herein as compared with the form shown and described in the Bohn et al. patent, as the present construction provides a more effective seal than wasv provided by the Bohn et al. construction.

As shown in the lower portion of each accompanying drawings,` the door is provided with a flange portion 2i extending into one of' the grooved guideways, such as the guideway I8 for the door l5. Suitable anti-friction means (not shown) may, if desired, be provided between the bottom of the flange 2! and the bottom of the guideway I8, or between the lower portion of the door and a surface of the lower sill thereunder. The upper portion of each door is provided with an upwardly extending flange portion 22) which is of greater extent vertically, as seen in the accompanying drawings (i. e., in a direction of the plane of the door and perpendicular to the sliding movement thereof) than is the corresponding dimension of' the lower flange portion 2l. The purpose of this will appear hereinafter. In the normal position of the doors as shown, for example, in Figs. 1y and ll, the flange portion 22 is in part received within the upper grooved guideway I1 as to the door l5 and within the grooved guideway i9 as to the door i6. With the construction thus far described, the doors may be freely slidable from right to left as seen in Figs. l and 2; so as to open and close the associated opening into the refrigerated compartment.

Means are provided in accordance with the present invention, for sealing the upper and preferably also the lower edge of each door at the closed. position thereof, so as to prevent ingress and egress of air into and out of the associated refrigerated compartment. For this purpose, the upper flange portion 22 of each door is provided with a gasket 23 extending therealong within a part of the grooved guideway I'l as to the door l5 and within the guideway I9 as to the door I6. Similarly, the lower flange portion of each door 2l may be provided with a similar gasket 24, which in the normalposition of the door l5, for example, is disposed within and parallel to the lower grooved guideway I8, as best. seen innFigs.

2 and 4. Each of these gaskets 23 and 24 is formed as a substantially semi-cylindrical member of resilient material, such as rubber, which is preferably hollow as shown, and preferably provided with an integral flange portion 25 which maybe disposed within a correspondingly shaped groove formed in the associated door, each gasket being secured in its place by cement or in any other desired manner. It will be understood that other equivalent gasket means, preferably of compressible and resilient material, may be substituted for the gasket means particularly shown if desired. ,K

In order that the gasket means 23 and 2t shall be compressed to a sealing condition at the closed position of the doors, wedge means are provided. Thus, where both upper and lower gaskets are employed, as shown in the accompanyingdrawings, the upper edge of the door l is provided with a pair of wedge means 25 and 27 preferably disposed adjacent to the corners of the flange portion 22 as shown. The wedge means 25 and 2'! which are rigid with the door i 5 are arranged respectively to engage and ride up upon stationary wedge means 28 and 29 (see Figs. fl and 5), which are carried rigidly by and may be formed rigid or integral with the upper sill I i. Thus, at the closed position of the door I5 as shown in Figs. 2 and 4, the upper portion or flange 22 thereof will be forced by the cooperative action of these wedge means in a direction perpendicular to the plane of the door (upwardly as seen in Fig. 2, and to the right as seen in Fig. 4), so as to compress the gasket 23 against the side of the grooved guideway I'I, thus effecting a tight seal along the entire width of the top portion of the door.

As hereinabove stated, the present invention, in its preferred form, includes the provision of a similar gasket means 2d extending along the lower vflange portion 2i of each door and located, as to the door I5, within the grooved guideway I8. Similar means are provided for compressing this gasket means 24, including wedge means 3G and 3I xed to the door l 5 and stationary wedge means 32 and 33 rigid with the lower sill I2 respectively cooperating with the wedge means 30 and 3l. These wedge means act in the same way as the upper wedge means hereinabove described, as clearly illustrated in Figs. 2, 4 and '7. This effects a sealing along the entire lower edge or flange portion 2l of each door at its closed position.

The same or similar construction is applied to door I5, except that this door has its gaskets 23 and 2li provided on the side thereof facing the door I5, as shown best in Figs. 2 and 3, so that both gaskets cooperate with what may be termed a rib portion of the upper and lower sills I I and I2 dividing the two parallel grooved guideways or channels E'l-IB and I8-20 therein respectively. Thus, at the closed positions of both doors, they are both sealed in respect to these upper and lower ribs of the respective sills, there being but one rib at the top and one rib at the bottom involved in this sealing operation.

Also, at the closed position of the two doors I5 and I6, means are provided for sealing the Vertical space between the two doors. For this purpose, one of the doors (as the door I) may be provided with a gasket member 34 suitably secured thereto as shown and arranged to bear against the other door (in this case, the door I5). A*The s pacebetween the two `doors 'is thus effectively sealed at theclosed position:

In order to seal the other cracks left, i. e., as between the left hand end of the door I5 and right hand end of door I6 respectively and the side members I 3 and M defining the opening, these side members may be provided with one or more gaskets as shown at v and 35, Fig. 3, for the door l5. While two of these gaskets are shown in'this drawing, it will be understood that one or more such gasket means may be provided as may be desired. Similar gasket means may be provided between the side member I4 and the door I6, as indicated, for example, at 31, Fig. 1. While the gasket means 35 and 33 may, for simplicity of manufacture, be constructed in the same way and of the same type of material as the gasket means 23 and 24, other or equivalent gasket means could be used as gasket or bumper means for one or both doors.

Means are further provided in accordance with the present invention for preventing bodily re- Inoval of each door from the compartment, except when such door is located within a predetermined limited range in its path of sliding movement. While a similar purpose was accomplished by means disclosed in the Bohn et al. patent aforesaid, this result is effected with a greater economy of parts and simpler construction in accordance with the present invention, by making at least one of the wedge means hereinabove described perform a double function.

The function of the several wedge means has been described. In addition, the wedge means shown at 29 in Fig. 5, which is the wedge means cooperating with the wedge means 21, Fig. 1, in sealing the door I5, now serves as a locking lug to cooperate with a ledge 38 forlned as shown on and preferably integral with the flange portion 22. The ledge 33 is interrupted only at a predetermined position or limited range, preferably centrally of the door, by a vertical recess 39, thus dividing the ledge 38 into two spaced parts. When the recess 3Q is so positioned by the sliding of the door to a position within this predetermined limited range, the recess 33 will be opposite the wedge means or locking lug 2S. As the recess 39 may be made somewhat greater in width (from right to left as seen in Fig. 1), than is the locking lug 2d, there will be provided a predetermined limited range in the sliding movement of the door, at any part of Which the locking lug 29 will be opposite a part of the recess 39. At any such position within this range. the door I5 may be bodily lifted upwardly from the position of the parts shown in full lines (Figs. 4 and 5) to the position shown in dotted lines in Fig. 5 and to that shown in full lines in Fig. 6. At any other position of the door, a part of the ledge 38 will be disposed beneath the locking lug 2S, so that at such other positions of the door I5, upward movement of the door wiilbe positively prevented by engagement of the locking lug 23 and a part of the ledge 32. Thus, the door may be removed bodily from the case only when the wedge means or locking lug 22 is opposite some part of the recess 33. y

At this relative position of the locking lug and ledge 33 or its recess 33, the door I5 may be removed, by first lifting it to the position shown in full lines in Fig. 6 and in the dotted lines in Fig. 5; then swinging the lower portion of the door outwardly of the compartment as indicated by the dotted line showing at 4i), Fig. 5, until the flange portion 2l thereof is clear of the lower sill I2; then lowering the door until the upper flange portion 22 thereof is clear of the grooved guideway l1; whereupon the door may be completely removed and free access given tothe interior of the compartment for any desired purposesas well as for cleaning or repairing the door.

The door may be returned to its normal operative` position by a reverse series of steps from that just, described. This. should be obvious from the foregoing description to those skilled in the art, and therefore will not be repeated in4 detail.

The present invention thus provides a dual or double use for the wedge means 23, in that `it serves at the closed position of the door I5 asa wedge means for compressing one portion of the gasket 23. It also` serves as a locking lug, preventing vertical lifting of the door except in the limited range aforesaid, and thus tends to prevent any improper handling of the device as a whole.

The door I6 may be provided with similar wedging` and locking means as shown, for example, the accompanying drawings, Figs. 2 and 3. Inv respect to the door I5, however, when it is desired to remove this door, the door l5 is first removed; following which the door i5 is slidably moved into a position at which it may be removed; then moved vertically upwardly and the lower portion swung outwardly of the refrigerated compartment until it is wholly clear of the entire lower sill I2; following which it is moved downwardly for full removal from its guideways. In reassembling the entire construction as shown, thek door I6 must be placed in its normal operative position prior to placing the door i5 in its operative position if both doors are to be used in the arrangement shown in the drawing.

While there is shown and described herein an arrangement in which one of the stationary lugs is employed as a locking lug and in which the ledge 38 with its recess 3S are formed on the door, these parts may be relatively reversed, so that a wedge means, such as either 26 or 2l, or both, may be employed as the one or more locking lugs cooperating with a ledge means for-med on the upper sill and having one or more suitable recesses therein with which the locking lugs are arranged to register within a limited range of movement of the door, so as to permit vertical movement of the door in this limited range only of its movement. Such an equivalent construction should now be obvious from the foregoing description to those skilled in the art and hence is not particularly illustrated. In any event, the locking lug and ledge with which it cooperates must be relatively moved in respect to each other by sliding movement oi the door in question, so as to cause a registry between the one or more locking lugs with one or more recesses respectively, which are provided in the ledge means, permitting ver-tical movement of the door only at these positions or in this range.

While there is herein particularly shown and described but one detailed construction embodying the invention, some equivalents have been pointed out herein and others will now become obvious from the foregoing description tok those skilled inthe art. I do not wish to be limited, therefore, except by the scope of the appended claims, which are to be construed validly as broadly as the state of the prior art permits.

What is claimed is:

l. A sliding door construction for a refrigerated compartment, comprising stationary upper and lower sills, each providing a guide track for a sliding door., said guide tracks being parallel to onelanotber and saidguide track of said upper sill comprising a grooved guideway, stationary side members cooperating with said sills in deiining an opening into said compartment; a door mounted for sliding movement in said guide tracks for opening and closing said opening, said door having a lower portion slidably cooperating with said guide track of said lower sill, said door having an upper flange portion extending into said grooved guideway of said upper sill, a resilient gasket member carried by one side of said upper flange member and disposed within said grooved guideway of said upper sill, cooperating wedge means, including stationary wedge means fixed in respect to said upper sill and cooperating wedge means carried by said door for registry with said stationary wedge means at the closed position of said door, said cooperating wedge means serving to move the upper portion of said door in a direction generally perpendicular to the plane thereof and thereby to compress said resilient gasket member to seal said opening when said door is closed; and means for preventing bodily removal of said door from said compartment except when said door is located within a predetermined limited range of its path of movement, including one of said wedge means acting as a locking lug, a ledge cooperating with said locking lug to prevent vertical movement of said door when any part of said ledge is opposite said locking lug, said ledge and said locking lug being relatively moved by sliding movement of said door in said guide tracks, and a recess in said ledge having a predetermined extent in the direction of the sliding movement of said door for determining the limits of said range and arranged to be opposite said locking lug when said door is moved to any position within said predetermined limited range, so that at such position of said door, it may be bodily removed from said compartment by lifting said door until said lower portion thereof is clear of said guide track of said lower sill, then swinging the lower portion of said door outwardly of said compartment until it is clear of said lower sill, and then lowering said door until said upper flange portion thereof is clear of said grooved guideway of said upper sill.

2. A sliding door construction in accordance with claim l, wherein said opening into said refrigerated compartment is arranged to be closed by a pair of independently sliding doors mounted to slide in parallel paths by providing substantially parallel guide tracks for said doors respectively in said upper and lower sills, there being a predetermined overlap of said doors when both are in their closed positions, and wherein gasket means with wedge means for the compression thereof and means for preventing bodily removal except at positions within a predetermined range are similarly provided as aforesaid for each of said doors respectively.

3. A sliding door construction in accordance with claim 2, wherein both gasket means of both said doors are disposed on the side of each of said doors facing the other of said doors, said wedge means as to both doors tending to force each door respectively toward the other of said doors, so that said gaskets bear upon a single rib portion of each of said sills respectively, which divide grooved guideways in each of said sills comprising the guide tracks thereof, a substantially vertical gasket member of resilient, material on one of said doors bearing against the other of said doors at the closed positions of both s aid doors, and resilient gaskets on, said stationary side members which are engaged by said doors respectively at their closed positions, all said gaskets and said doors eiectively sealing said opening at the closed positions of said doors.

4. A sliding door construction in accordance with claim 1, wherein said guide track of said lower sill and the lower portion of said door cooperating therewith have an interlocking relative overlap in a vertical direction for preventing bodily removal of said door except as aforesaid, and wherein said relative overlap has a dimension in the plane of said door and perpendicular to the direction of sliding movement thereof which is substantially less than both the depth oi said grooved guideway of said upper sill and of said upper ange portion of said door in a direction parallel to said dimension.

5. A sliding door construction in accordance with claim 1, wherein said guide track of said lower sill comprises a grooved guideway therein similar to but shallower than said grooved guideway of said upper sill, and wherein the lower portion of said door cooperating with the guide track of said lower sill comprises a lower ange portion of said door; and comprising in addition, a resilient gasket member carried by and extending along one side of said lower ilange portion in a position to be received within said grooved guideway of said lower sill, stationary wedge means carried by said lower sill and cooperating wedge means carried by said lower flange portion for moving the lower portion of said door in a direction to compress the associated resilient gasket member against one side of the grooved guideway of said lower sill at the closed position of said door.

6. A sliding door construction in accordance with claim 1, wherein said wedge means which acts as a locking lug is stationary with respect to said upper sill, and wherein said ledge is formed rigid with said upper ange portion of said door.

ALBERT J. LORENZ.

References Cited in the le of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 1,975,275 Hopkins Oct. 2, 1934 2,047,937 Bohn et al. July 21, 1936 2,072,300 Goetzmann Mar. 2, 1937 2,192,063 Hopkins Feb. 27, 1940 2,192,519 King Mar. 5, 1940 2,198,436 Hoiman Apr. 23, 1940 

